The present invention relates to an apparatus for loading pipes onto processing machines, in particular pipe-bending machines, comprising a support base, a handler arm associated with said base and provided at the end with grip members for holding a pipe fast, and drive means for said handler arm.
It is known that in some types of processing machines intended to carry out machining on pipes even of great length, such as machines provided with appropriate pipe-bending heads and special movable mandrels having cores to be fitted into the pipes so as to cause displacement and rotation of the latter about their axes during the different operating steps, each pipe is required to be oriented horizontally and the end thereof into which said core is to be inserted must be placed substantially at the front portion of the pipe-bending machine.
Therefore, each pipe must be picked up and moved from the station or magazine arranged for storing pipes in an orderly manner until the intended position close to the processing machine, by appropriate loadhng means or apparatuses.
According to a first known technique, the pipe magazine is located at a position substantially in front of the pipe-bending machine at an appropriate distance therefrom, so that said loading apparatus must only carry out a mere translation of each pipe.
However, this technical solution involves some drawbacks in that, if the pipe magazine is located close to the pipe-bending machine, said machine may undergo important operating restrictions since an appropriate room at the area in front of the machine itself is not available for receiving the pipe portions that have been submitted to bending. On the other hand, if the pipe magazine is located very far from the pipe-bending machine, availability of very wide operating areas is required, which is often inconsistent with a rational and economical management of the whole plant.
In order to overcome the above drawbacks, according to a second known technique, the pipe magazine is disposed longitudinally in side by side relationship with the pipe-bending machine at an appropriate although not great distance therefrom. However, with this technical solution that, on the other hand, enables bulkiness in plan of the whole plant to be limited at most, employment of a loading apparatus is required which consists of a true robotized handler capable of picking up and moving each pipe from the magazine to the operating position required by the pipe-bending machine, that is in the extension of the front portion of said machine, in alignment with the axis of the machine mandrel. The handler therefore must grasp each pipe close to a front end relative to the pipe-bending machine, carry out overturning of the grasped pipe so that the front end becomes the rear end into which the core associated with the pipe-bending machine mandrel is to be fitted and finally translate or overturn the pipe again until a position at which the pipe is in alignment with the axis of said mandrel.
The known art briefly described above however, has some drawbacks.
Actually, the handler to be used for obtaining transferring and positioning of each pipe consists of at least two independent units each assigned to displacement of the grasped pipe about its own hinging axis.
Each movement unit practically defines an independent apparatus requiring sensors of its own and control units suitably coordinated in order to obtain precise positioning to be repeated with a high-accuracy degree. Therefore, costs of such a handler are high and at all events its reliability cannot be completely sure because it is based on the presence of complicated control systems that are often subjected to a non-negligible percentage of failures.
In addition, in the known art there is some rigidity as regards both possible deposit heights of each pipe in the magazine and the needed distance between the magazine and the pipe-bending machine.